Gary Stockton is a Senior Manager of Content Marketing at Experian Business Information Services. He is charged with spreading awareness through content marketing for Experian thought leadership content in addition to leading social media and community building efforts.

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Join our #CreditChat on Twitter on Wednesday, May 1st, at 3 p.m ET. This week, we’re talking about small business credit. Topic: Small Business Credit When: May 1st, 2019, at 3 p.m. ET.   Easy ways to chat with us on Twitter: Tchat The panel will include: Rod Griffin: Director of Consumer Education and Awareness at Experian; Gary Stockton: Content Marketing for Experian Business Information Services; Chane Steiner: Chief Executive Officer at Crediful; Gerri Detweiler: Director of Education at Nav Inc.; Beverly Harzog: Credit Card Expert, Author and Consumer Advocate; Barry Moltz: Small Business Expert; Sylvia Inks: Small Business Finance Coach; Rohit Arora: CEO at Biz2Credit; Michelle L. Black: Credit Expert; and Jimarcus Blandin: Certified Global Business Coach & Speaker, Financial Literacy Expert. Don\'t miss it!

Published: April 30, 2019 by Gary Stockton

In celebration of Women’s History Month, Yelp has made it easier for customers to tell if a business is Woman-owned by enabling a special “Women-owned Business” attribute on their Yelp page. “We’re excited to help raise the profile of millions of women-owned businesses who drive the local economies of our cities and towns,” says Miriam Warren, Yelp’s vice president of engagement, diversity, and belonging. “We’re hopeful that this new attribute not only makes it easier to identify and connect with great women-owned businesses on Yelp, but that it also drives more dollars directly to the bottom line for these female-owned businesses.” To help build awareness among Women Business Owners, Yelp has partnered with Rebecca Minkoff’s  Female Founder Collective to automatically list existing members as “Women-Owned” on their respective Yelp pages.  If you are a Woman Business Owner and would like to self-identify as Woman-Owned-Business, you can do so by updating your Yelp page. Women are feeling empowered Much has changed for Women in the past five years.  Women are feeling empowered — according to Visa’s  State of Female Entrepreneurship report,  79 percent of American female entrepreneurs feel more empowered than they did five years ago. But 73 percent found funding to be a significant challenge in getting their business off the ground. By shining a light on Women-owned businesses, Yelp is taking an important step in highlighting female entrepreneurs, making them easy to identify and support.

Published: March 11, 2019 by Gary Stockton

Paying an invoice without carefully reviewing the company and invoice can cost your business more than just the amount paid. Invoicing fraud is when a third party sends a false invoice to an organization or business. In some cases, the invoice is for services or products that were never purchased or delivered. Other times, fraudsters send a bill with inflated pricing or a duplicate bill. Paying just a single fraudulent invoice can set your company up for being a victim of larger fraud down the line. Often, criminals send a small invoice for a common product, such as office supplies, to test the company’s process to see if they will pay the false invoice. If the business pays the invoice, the criminals know that the company does not carefully review and research the invoices they receive. Criminals then send additional invoices to the company to continue the fraud. Julie Johnson, Research Specialist at Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) says that invoicing fraud appears to be on the rise. “The rise in technology offers fraudsters new and creative ways to commit invoice fraud as well as more options to hide their tracks,” says Johnson. According to a Lloyds Bank survey, 52 percent of respondents have experienced invoiced fraud, with law firms, HR companies, and IT businesses being most at risk. The survey also found that only 20 percent of the companies reviewed their invoices, and 37 percent do not have a process to prevent invoice fraud. Johnson says that in her experience, small businesses are most at risk for becoming victims to invoice fraud. “SMBs are often targeted because they typically don’t have the same set of resources as larger companies. They also may not have a procurement process to determine figures and track invoices,” says Johnson. Red flags to help spot invoice fraud before you pay While fraudulent invoices often look similar in format, and even in name, to legitimate invoices, many fraudulent invoices contain warning signs. When processing invoices, keep an eye out for the following red flags: Business directory invoices – Many fraudsters send a fake invoice to a company or individual employee about a business directory renewal. Johnson said that criminals with this particular scam often become aggressive and contact the company demanding to be paid. Web domain renewals – Johnson says that another common fraud is invoicing for web domain renewals. These invoices typically come from a different company than the one that sent previous renewal notices but may have an official or similar sounding name. More frequent bills – Be aware of how often bills arrive for specific products and services. Johnson has found that fraudsters will send a bill for a product more often than the legitimate company. For example, if you pay your printer rental fee once a month, but receive two bills in March, then you should contact the company before paying. No purchase order – Real invoices almost always contain the corresponding purchase order. However, many fraudulent invoices do not include a purchase number. Preventing invoice fraud Because it is challenging to catch fraudsters and recover money paid, the best strategy is to incorporate safeguards into your invoice payment process. Here are four things you can do to prevent becoming a victim of invoice fraud: Verify the company name on each invoice — Fraudsters often use company names similar to those of reputable companies. If you are not familiar with the company, do a Google search. Johnson says that if there is no internet information on a company, that’s a good indicator that something is not right. Compare the receipt of goods and purchase order with the invoice — Since fraudsters send invoices for goods you never received, you will not have a receipt of goods for fraudulent invoices. Check the payable address for each invoice — Another scheme is for a fraudster to send a bill with the name of a company you do business with but use a different payable address. Instead of sending your payment to the legitimate company, you pay the fraudster. Even worse than the fact that you lost money, you likely still owe your legitimate vendor. Use Experian BizID for Verification — Experian customers can do a business verification using the BizID to verify the address and phone number matches what is on file with Experian. Performing verification using BizID can also check if the address is potentially vacant or if it is a residential address; both should be considered red flags. You can also do reverse-looks up using the address and phone to see if there are multiple businesses at both data points is another check to consider. If you determine that you have received a fraudulent invoice, Johnson says to remember that you are not legally obligated to pay for goods or services that you did not order. “If you receive harassing calls from companies about fraudulent invoices, they have no legal action against you,” says Johnson. “After verifying that it’s not a legitimate invoice, do not pay the invoice.” By taking steps to catch and prevent invoice fraud, your company can reduce its chances of becoming a victim.

Published: February 7, 2019 by Gary Stockton

In this guest post, tax expert and author Barbara Weltman offers some tax saving tips for business owners as we head into tax season. You can find more posts by Barbara on her blog Big Ideas for Small Business. Tax season is upon us and business owners want to minimize their tax bill for 2018 to the extent allowed by law. Fortunately, there is considerable flexibility on tax returns to cut taxes and be positioned for 2019. Here are some business-related strategies to consider. Take advantage of new tax laws Your 2018 return will reflect changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The new rules applicable to you depend on your type of business entity: C corporations. The most dramatic change here is the cut in the corporate tax rate to 21%. Pass-through entities. For owners in partnerships, limited liability companies, S corporations, and sole proprietors, the most dramatic change here is the introduction of a new tax deduction called the qualified business income (QBI) deduction. This personal write-off effectively reduces taxable profits by 20% for those eligible to fully utilize it; many limitations apply. All businesses. Regardless of how the business is organized, write-offs for buying certain property have been enhanced, enabling all of the cost to be deducted up front. This is so even if the purchases are financed in whole or in part. And if you’ve continued paying wages to employees on family or medical leave and meet certain requirements, you may be eligible for a new tax credit. Make smart tax elections Size up where you stand in terms of profitability for 2018. As a generalization, if 2018 was a good year, you want to maximize your deductions; if it was not a good year, you probably want to save deductions where possible to use them as offsets when profitability returns. For example, if you’re in the black in 2018 and have placed newly acquired equipment in service in 2018, then use tax breaks—Section 179 deduction and bonus depreciation—to write off all of the cost on your 2018 return. Conversely, if you’re in the red, don’t elect the Section 179 deduction and opt out of bonus depreciation so you use regular depreciation to spread deductions over the recovery period of the property; hopefully, you’ll be profitable then and benefit more from these deductions. Discuss with your CPA or another tax advisor any accounting method changes to be made for 2018 in light of new rules under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Making such changes can impact when deductions are taken and income is reported. Make last-minute retirement plan contributions If you have a qualified retirement plan in place (i.e., it’s been operating for years or you at least signed the paperwork for a 2018 plan by December 31, 2018), you can complete contributions to the plan up to the extended due date of your return. For example, if you are a sole proprietor with a solo 401(k) plan (you don’t have employees), your contribution for 2018 can be made up to the extended due date of your 2018 return (October 15, 2019) if you have a filing extension. If you don’t have a qualified retirement plan in place, it’s not too late to set up and fund a SEP. This type of plan, which can be used by any type of entity, requires you to include eligible employees and make contributions on their behalf up to the extended due date of your return. Figure your estimated taxes for 2019 The due date of your personal income tax return—April 15, 2019 (April 17th if you live Maine or Massachusetts)—is also the date for paying the first installment of estimated tax for 2019. If you file your 2018 return by this date, you can use the 2018 tax liability to gauge your 2019 estimated tax payments. As long as your 2019 estimated taxes are at least 100% of your 2018 liability (110% if your adjusted gross income in 2018 exceeds $150,000, or $75,000 if married filing separately), then you won’t owe any estimated tax penalties even if this estimate falls short of what you’ll actually owe on your 2019 return. In making your 2019 estimated, factor in: A higher Social Security wage base ($132,900 in 2019), which is part of self-employment tax. Cost of living adjustments to various tax breaks (e.g., retirement plan contribution limits, Section 179 deduction limitation). Conclusion Now that the dust has settled on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, some businesses may want to consider changing their form of entity (e.g., revoking an S election to become a C corporation). Keep in mind that such action has more than mere tax effect and shouldn’t be undertaken without considering not only all the federal and state taxes but also non-tax considerations. Want to learn more?   Attend our upcoming webinar with Barbara Weltman. hbspt.cta.load(464374, \'dceba17b-53ae-4aa2-b7d8-b763a673eafb\', {}); [hubspot type=form portal=464374 id=0b178fe9-d832-4ea4-91e2-064a2f313bb2]

Published: January 23, 2019 by Gary Stockton

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